An author friend of mine, Lynn Shepherd, is hosting a comparative book review contest on her blog.

I couldn’t resist entering as the goal is to review two of the hottest Austen inspired murder mysteries on the market, Murder at Mansfield Park and Death Comes to Pemberley. Shepherd is putting both books together in a head to head compare and contrast style review contest.

What is the goal of the comparative book review?

• I’m pitching these two Janeite murder mysteries together, head to head, to see which one you think comes out on top. I’m inviting anyone who’s read both books to write a short review comparing the two, and giving them each a score
• Reviews/entries will be posted on Lynn Shepherd’s blog 

The #AustenMurderMatch starts on December 26th and runs till Monday 9th January 2012

What do you need to do?

• A review, in English, comparing Death Comes to Pemberley andMurder at Mansfield Park. This should be no more than 150 words long.
• A score out of ten for both of the books (ie, two separate scores, one for each).

For full details please view her blog posting here

So without further ado, here is my review/entry in this comparative review!

The Lit Bitch’s Comparative Review

Death Comes to Pemberley vs Murder at Mansfield Park

Murder at Mansfield Park (MMP) was much more true to the original story and preserved the integrity of the characters then Death Comes to Pemberley (DCP). Rather than write a spin-off (the typical approach), where the story continues on or follows a minor character like DCP does, MMP presents an alternate telling of the story which I really enjoyed. For this reason, DCP was very flat to me and hard to get into. Though the actual murder in MMP doesn’t happen until 100 or so pages in, it was concise and believable along with the motives. In DCP the murder and mystery itself was confusing and full of holes. The only thing that DCP had over MMP was the lovely cover and cute book title, but we all know, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

Scores out of 10:

• Murder at Mansfield Park: 8
• Death Comes to Pemberley: 3